The wage gap between men and women has increased in the Canary Islands by 0.49 points, going from 9.85% in 2020 to 10.34% in 2021, so that they earn an average of 2,441 euros less per year than men for equal jobs; or what is the same, they work 38 days for free.
This is the analysis carried out by UGT of the Canary Islands, which presented its latest report on this matter this Thursday on the occasion of the commemoration of Equal Pay Day this February 22, prepared from the figures of the latest Wage Structure Survey of the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
"We see how the rise in the minimum interprofessional wage that took place between 2020 and 2021, which was 1.6%, where we went from 950 euros to 965 euros, a pyrrhic increase of 15 euros, was not enough for the gap to be shortened. And not only is it not shortened, but it is widened," said Mirna Ortega, head of the Equality Secretariat of UGT Canarias, at a press conference.
This union spokesperson has denounced that one of the elements that generates this wage gap is part-time hiring, which especially affects women and not by will, but because it is the only offer that is made to them.
She has also alluded to the fact that women are still the ones who request permits for unpaid care, representing 85% of the requests, a figure that, for her, means that "co-responsibility is not yet a reality."
The Secretary of Equality of UGT Canarias has emphasized the "double discrimination" suffered by women between 25 and 34 years old, who earn, according to the data collected in the report, 3,364.17 euros less (a gap of 15%) than their male colleagues in the same age range, and 4,109.05 euros less (a gap of 17.73%) than the average of working women in Spain.
Young women, the best prepared in history
In that sense, Ortega has warned that 47.7% of women in that age range have a higher education degree, being "the best prepared in our history", compared to 32.4% of men of those ages.
In addition, the report indicates that from the age of 65, the wage gap shoots up to 27.73%, the highest of the wage differences by age group, in which their presence is also more numerous due to their need to "extend their working life", Ortega warned.
The unionist has also pointed out that in pensions the wage gap in the Canary Islands is more than 30%.
For her part, Mercedes García, technician of the Technical Office of Equality of UGT Canarias, has warned that from her department, which works with more than 500 Canarian companies in the realization of Equality Plans, they have verified that the real gap that the Wage Structure Survey placed in 2021 at 10.34% could actually be up to 20%.
According to García, one of the reasons for these differences are the salary supplements, but not those agreed by agreement, but the individual ones.
Among the demands of UGT to reduce the wage gap are to put into practice the laws that already establish equality between men and women in the workplace, to convene the Social Dialogue Table to address part-time hiring, which is, according to Ortega, "a huge scourge for working women", and to transpose the European directive on equal pay, which establishes greater controls and transparency.
Likewise, she has demanded the need for the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate to have training means and action plans with clear criteria to assist and intervene in those companies where female work is undervalued and that more means are put in place so that the data on the wage gap with which they work is more up-to-date.
